No Link Between IVF and Cancer Risk

This is good news for couples with infertility issues who may have been influenced by a smaller Dutch study that suggested participating in IVF treatment might increase the risk of developing breast and ovarian cancer.

To obtain their conclusions, scientists studied more than 67,000 women who had IVF treatment between 1994 and 2011.Theycompared their results with 20,000 womenwhohadgivenbirthand not participated in IVF treatments.

Althoughthe researchers did not find a link between IVF therapyandbreastcancer, cervical cancerand endometrial cancer,theydidfindtherisk of developing ovarian cancerincreasedslightlyandrose with thenumber of IVF cycles.

Dr Bengt Kallen, whoobservedthestudybutwas not involved, said: “Infertilewomenhave a primaryproblem with their ovaries, and IVF has nothing to do with it. It's a ratherdifficultthing to disentangleif there is an effect from the hormones orfromthe IVF procedure."

Although study leader, Dr Louise Brinton described the results as “fairly reassuring”, she recommended continued close monitoring of women receiving IVF therapy.

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